MIDI remote control questions

[Jaykie]

This is from the old forum
Steve-C
Hi all,
I am trying to remote control FS with a Behringer BCF 2000. I have it installed and FS sees it ok. I can assign MIDI channels to functions but I don't understand how to get BCF faders to control specific DMX channels. What I'm trying to do is control dimmer packs or group intensities with the BCF faders for easier live use. Can MIDI controllers be mapped directly to DMX channels?

I tried to map a single fader to the "intensity" parameter in FS. I assume that if i click on a device (like a dimmer channel) then I can control the intensity? This is not working for me.

What is the correct way to accomplish this task? What am i doing wrong? Any suggestions would be helpfull and appreciated.

Thanks!
Steve C

Inverted Reality
As far as I can tell you cant assign the faders to specific channels. I was thinkning of doing the same thing to controle the intencity and rate of my strobe.

I have a BCF2000 sitting at home for me when I return on saturday, I cant wait to try it out! It to ages to track one down. Thomann arent stocking them and most places (in the uk) dont seam to have any stock.

Steve-C
yes it should be very helpful for those times when you can't make a preset for everything. I have gotten it to control the master intensity fader but that's all.
I wish I understood what all the controllable elements listed are for. Some are easy but some are mysterious.

Any suggestions out there?

Thank you in advance

LJ Exodus
Bump. Was asking myself the same question.

LJ Exodus
Not possible at the moment. The main question when programming to implement this would be, where would you end?
2 channels, 16 channels, 32 channels, 512 channels?

Also, how many users would benefit the hours work to make this reality?

Inverted reality
The way I see it working is you would pick a dmx channel, and then a midi note to controle it. You wouldnt need to have options for them all, just start with 1 and then have a 'add new' button to add a new midi/dmx patch. It would then only be limited by the number of avalable faders.

LJ Exodus
The problem is that it's definitly not easy to implement that way.
(I also thought of that and asked Raph.)

There are a couple of problems:
- Midi programming isn't setup in that way at the moment, so it would require an structural rebuild
- Dynamically programming the DMX<>MIDI patching/input is not as easy as you would believe.

All in all it requires many hours of extra programming with (at the moment) only 3 people wanting to see the feature.
Please remember that Freestyler is being developed by 1 person, and 1 person only, who is doing this in his spare time for free.

But... All hope is not lost yet. Raph said he would look into it, so maybe you can expect a small number of dmx<>midi channels in the near future (12 or 24 or such.)

Steve_c
Well, LJ Exodus, I definately appreciate the time and effort invested in this software. I was only trying to make the most of it and the hardware I have.

Could you explain how the intensity parameter is intended to work? I can't seem to make it perform.

Thanks,
Steve

Pat Bee
Hi all,
first post here for me, enjoying the software but I'm dying to control the Channels with my MIDI faders. As to the question to where to end, well... Why not just put in 32, who has a USB midi fader board with more than 32 faders?!? Not most people. I would be happy with just 6 myself. I think there is a huge untapped market for full multi-media control on a DJ or single performer level. Such people wouldn't need lots of channel control, just enough to tear the roof off a small to mid size venue. PLEASE make this happen. I'm tempted to go try out MAX/MSP...
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS FREE GEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pat Bee
So after posting that last post I went to town on trying to make the MIDI to DMX control that is there, work as well as I could. What I ended up doing was this

I made a new custom fixture and mapped my 6 channels to parameters that can be by default controlled by MIDI (Focus, Frost, Gobo1, Gobo2, ect... you have to have the MIDI assign notes pane open to cross reference) Then I saved this new fixture.

I then added the new fixture to a setup and assigned the control parameters I had just created to MIDI notes using my Axiom 25 usb keyboard. once that was done I switched the Midi interface over to a Loopback program i have installed.

I opened a new project in Abelton Live and wrote a bunch of notes that corespond to the; Notes in the MIDI assign pane and the dmx control channels. and set the midi output to the loopback device.

then
WAH-LAA!!!

the music was driving the lights.
it was glorious
let me tell you,
direct channel control would be GREAT but this work around, though very limited, will do the trick.

thanks again for this dope'ware. looking forward to seeing it keep on keepin on.

lj_raph
Hi

Normally this function has been added so check out the MIDI function page.

Best regards

Mattotone
How do you setup the dmx channels?

smcdo02
I have a very specific way I would like to use Freestyler and was hoping you guys could help me. Sounds very much like what Pat Bee touched on. I'm a musician in a TOOL tribute band and this my (and the bands) first foray into using lights like this. We have several Chauvet DMX lights and a few lasers and will add other fixtures later. What we want to do is have the drummer play to a click track and also have the click track drive the light show. And to add more complexity, if for some reason we get off click, we need to be able to bypass freestyler and control lights hopefully with a foot controller of some sort. Any help at all would really be appreciated.

LJ Phoenix
Mattotone: did you manage to get the midi->dmx to work?
I've been trying and still can't figure it out.
Been setting up my dimmers on first dmx addresses and used the midi->dmx but doesn't seem to work.

Cheers,
Julien.

Mattotone
No, i still have no idea how to use the thing, iv looked in every menu, the config file and still no luck. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Chris L
Hey

I've tried using the midi to DMX using a Behringer LC2412.
This works for the master intensity function with all but 1 of the faders, but the midi to DMX does nothing on any of the faders.

Also, Freestyler crashes when I move fader 1. This has a note value of 0, so I assume that is a MIDI 0/ MIDI 1 problem.

Chris

lj_raph
How to configure the midi to dmx channels:

- Open the setup window
- Goto midi setup
- Select midi interface
- Click "start"
- Click on "assign notes"
- When you assigned a note to a "midi to dmx" channel you must enter a numeric value (1- 512), you will see the numeric value appear in the "extra" column.

Best regards

Raph

Chris L
Magic

Am I right about the MIDI 0/ MIDI 1 crashing freestyler?

When freestyler recieves this data it comes up with error 450 which says something like unexpected parameter received.

Cheers
Chris